Social Meeting february 2011: Difference between revisions

After we had our first real life meet up in Hannover in march 2010 toat the [[Arianne Project Meeting 2010|10th birthday of the Arianne project]] and the social summer meeting which we had in september 2010, we decided to set up our second social meeting in february 2011. After finding a date which we set up fromaround the 23rd of february to the 27th of february, we decided to spent these days in Berlin (capital city of Germany) together. Therefore we found a really nice and cheap apartment in the middle of Berlin which wasn't expensive at all and had enough space for everyone and this time, even a useable kitchen this time with all the equipment we needed for creating some really nice meals (that wasn't the case in Hilchenbach unfortunately). Thank you Katie for your really tasty cooked meals :)

The attendees of thethis meeting this time were: ''Hendrik, Markus, Katie, Silvio, Vanessa, Simon and Frank.''

Although cars were really useful in Hilchenbach the last time, we decided to go to Berlin by train. Everyone booked some tickets for different ICEs and we met all up inat Berlinthe main station between 14.00 and 16.30. Katie, Markus, Hendrik, Simon and Vanessa grabbed the same train which arrived at 15.10, Silvio waited for them atbecause thehe mainarrived station alreadyearlier and Frank joined themthe group later.

After we all arrived a bit tired after a long travel, we decided to spend the rest of the day calmly and relaxing. We went to our apartment which included 3 bedrooms with singlebeds and one room with a doublebed, a huge kitchen, a dining room, 2 bathrooms and a really annoying "woman" called Stella, the unstable WLAN connection :D Now itIt was time to get something to eat and drink cause- the wewolves were all starving and thirsty.

Good that we found a supermarket close to the appartment, approximetly 5 minutes away. And then itthe trip started...

The supermarket invasion began and we went out ofleft it with around 6 to 7 bags which shouted already cause they were extremely heavy and filled up tilluntill the top. Phew, we were happy when we arrived into ourhome for 5-days home again...and that all important bottles didn't break on our way :D

After returning home from our shopping trip, we unpacked all of the bags which we brought with us into the apartment. We were all still hungry, so Katie started to cook a lovely tasty meal for us. We bought some sausages and beans as well as potatoes, red cabbage and green cabbage. Katie threw the sausages and beans together with tomatoes in a baking dish and placed it into the oven while the potatoes and different cabbage kinds boiled on the hot plates. A really yummi meal, which we all enjoyed :)!

After we all woke up in a now warm apartment, we decided to go out soon to visit some nice places around Berlin. Silvio was really hungry and wanted to eat some Sushi (he talked about it so long as we were convinceconvinced aboutof the idea :D) and we decided to find a nice looking restaurant in Berlin... The day began...

We first went to the metro station and bought some daily train tickets again and, jumped into one of the trains and drove to a really yummisweet Sushi restaurant called Wasabi. It was really tasty there and quite cheap and- we all stepped out satisfied and full with a huuuuge amount of sushi and notherother goodies.

With new strength and ready for some action, we went to a walk along the Friedrichstraße, a long and well-known street in Berlin. Crossing some impressive buildings and some good-looking restaurants, cafes and bars, we arrived at the Bode-museum which has been found and opened in 1904 and includes several art galleries and sculptures from different times. At the entrance we decided to buy a museum ticket which last for 3 days and included different museums which we were allowed to visit during this time without paying the entrance fee again. Later you will see, that the ticket was the its money worth it :) We had lots of fun in the museum and made some funny pictures and videos infront of different paintings which could be attached to the more modern art genre :D You'll see why when you find the pictures of thisit in the gallery which is added at the end here :D

About 2 hours later, we left the museum and were a bit tired of the huge cultural explosion which we experienced in it and went into one of the good-looking cafes which we saw on our way to the museum and enjoyed some cappuccino, espresso, hot chocolate, coffee and water there while planning the rest of the day...

Katie prepared aan really tastyawesome Lasagne and we all enjoyed eating it while smacking. We made the dishes, better saying that part was the work for our dishwasher and started to think about some funny games for the evening. We decided to play a tongue-twister game which rules were the following:

The game has been played around the table. One player started with the word "one", the second one has to say "frog", the third one "in a pond", the fourth one "splish" and the fifth one "splash"... So the first line is: one - frog - in a pond - splish - splash. After that the line starts again with the next player (this one the sixth one in our case) who has to say "two" the next one "two" the former number one "frogs" then "frogs" then "in a pond" then "in a pond" then "splish" then "splish" and so on... so the game was like "one frog in a pond splish splash" followed by 2*two 2*frogs 2*in a pond 2*splish 2*splash, 3* three 3*frogs 3* in a pond 3* splish 3* splash, 4*...and so on... When someone made a fault, he had to drink his glass empty (doesn't matter what was inside of it :P).

When we had "enough" of it, we decided to watch a movie. Therefore we brought the tv and a laptop into Simons and Silvios room causebecause this one had some couches and we started to watch "The big Lebowsky" which was really funny.

A new cold but sunny day started and we went slowly into it with having some breakfast, checking internet stuff a bit and deciding what we are going to do on the day. Unfortunetly Hendrik felt ill and had to stay at home while the rest decided to go out and see some interesting and for Berlin typical places and monuments and some museums which we could visit with our special card which we bought on the first day. We grabbed or jackets, scarves and gloves and left the house for going on a new cultural hunt :)

After buying some food again for the evening and had an again nice dinner with some red and white cabbage, pork, oven potatoes and a nice sauce, we started a kind of Stendhal-meeting-like-tradition: a game evening. Vanessa brought a game with her called Trivial Pursuit at which people have to answer to different kind of questions out of different categories which are based on the field the player went to. The goal was it to get small stones on 6 special fields for each categorie of questions (like history, chemistry, sports, literature etc.) and you win the game when you answer correctly to a last question out of a category with the other participants chose... but this time, we played soooo long that we decided to stop the game before we all fell asleep at the table :D But it was of course fun to play it although it was a bit difficult related to the questions which were in german on the playing cards and mostly related to Germany :)

Caused by the last fact and because it was more fun at all, we created three teams with 2 to 3 players who were allowed to discuss questions and answers before they gave their final answer. The teams were: 1. Katie and Vanessa, 2. Markus and Hendrik and 3. Silvio, Frank and Simon. After stopping the game we decided to not name any winner but closed it with a draw between all of thesethose three :D

Some people wanted to watch "The Labyrinth" after we finished the game, but some were sooo tired that we all went into bed one after the otheranother :) The movie-time had been postponed but not abandoned...